Nutrition They may be healthy choices, but pulses and most beans do not count as 5+ a day vegetable servings.

They may be healthy choices, but pulses and most beans do not count as 5+ a day vegetable servings.

Question:

In a recent episode of the TV series Eat Well for Less, the dietitian made a healthy pan-fried pizza using chickpea flour. She concluded with the claim that not only did it taste good but the flour counted as one of the “5+ a Day” vegetables and fruit. Surely any flour, such as rice, potato or wheat, would do this?

Answer:

In both New Zealand and the UK, where the BBC show Eat Well for Less is produced, the 5+ a Day health campaign has been running for many years to encourage people to eat at least five daily servings of fruit and vegetables. However, each country has a different definition of “a serving of fruit or vegetable”. Although both countries agree that chickpeas are a legume, so therefore fall into the “beans and pulses” food category, they don’t agree on whether beans and pulses count as vegetables.

In the UK, one serving of beans and pulses counts towards the daily serving target, whereas in this country legumes such as chickpeas do not, says Carmel Ireland, from the 5+ a Day Charitable Trust. Making the cut here are broad beans, green beans, french or flat beans, butter beans and snake or chinese beans.

In the UK, only one portion of legumes can count towards the daily target, no matter how many servings of chickpeas, lentils or other beans you have. This is because legumes, although a good fibre source, contain “fewer nutrients than other fruits and vegetables”, notes the UK’s National Health Service.

Similarly, in that country, one 150ml serving of fruit or vegetable juice or a smoothie can count towards the daily target, as can a 30g serving of dried fruit.

Here, though, both fruit juice and dried fruit were dumped by the Ministry of Health in the most recent iteration of its Eating and

Activity Guidelines for New Zealand Adults (2015). That change was in line with World Health Organisation sugar intake recommendations for adults and children (also published in 2015) – namely, that we limit intake of sugars from foods such as fruit juice.

The ministry recommends eating fresh fruit and drinking plain water instead of fruit juice, which is high in sugar, as “fruit is more filling than juice and provides available vitamins, phytonutrients (beneficial chemicals), fibre and much less sugar than juice”.

Dried fruit also got the thumbsdown. The sticky stuff gets wedged in your teeth, increasing the risk of cavities, and without its natural water content, dried fruit becomes a very high sugar snack we can more easily overeat.

No one is suggesting we ditch legumes, such as chickpeas, altogether, of course. Far from it. The ministry’s eating guidelines suggest at least two daily servings of nuts, seeds or legumes or, alternatively, one serving of fish, other seafood, eggs, poultry or red meat. Ireland agrees with that. “Although chickpeas are not included, we encourage their consumption as part of a healthy diet.”

Rich in nutrients and high in fibre, legumes, nuts and seeds are a useful protein source. In fact, chickpeas and other legumes are particularly high in protein, which makes them a cost-effective and nutritious protein source for omnivores and vegetarians.

Flour made from rice or wheat is classified as a grain rather than a vegetable. And although potatoes are vegetables, classifying a refined flour made from peeled potatoes as a serving of vegetables is a bit of a stretch.

So, if you eat chickpeas in the UK, they’ll count towards your daily target, but in this country they won’t.

Dried fruit also gets the thumbs-down, as without its natural water content, it’s a high-sugar snack we can easily overeat.